I'm a staff writer at Forbes, where until recently I chased the super-rich for our Forbes 400 and World's Billionaires lists. Now I'm covering the consumer economy, writing about the big personalities reinventing retail. Before Forbes, I worked as a news reporter in the UK and my home country of Bermuda, a travel writer for Frommer's and an intern for CNN's Anderson Cooper while completing a master's degree at Columbia University. Got a story idea? Email me at coconnor@forbes.com.

As George Clooney Throws Obama A $40,000-A-Plate Party, Meet The Billionaires Opening Their Wallets

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 12: In this handout image provided by the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama (R) talks about Sudan with actor George Clooney during a meeting outside the Oval Office October 12, 2010 in Washington, DC.

On Thursday night, movie megastar George Clooney will host President Obama at his enormous estate in the hills of Studio City, Calif. at a $40,000-a-plate re-election fundraiser. Team Obama is tight-lipped on the guest list for the private 150-person dinner, although DreamWorks mogul and prolific Democratic donor Jeffrey Katzenberg is co-hosting the affair.

The event marks what the New York Times referred to as a return to Hollywood for the President in a Wednesday story. His 2008 election was buoyed by the support of wealthy celebrities. But Obama isn’t just courting the stars on his L.A. trip. The really big checks come from the super-rich behind the camera. As the Times story noted, Obama recently invited Haim Saban to the Oval Office to ask for his backing. Saban isn’t a household name like Clooney, but he can afford to shell out more cash to help re-elect the President: he’s worth $2.9 billion.

The Israeli-born entertainment tycoon made his money with the Power Rangers brand, but more recently bought out Spanish-language broadcaster Univision in a $13.7 billion deal. He and his wife Cheryl have, between them, given over $10 million to political causes in the last decade. The vast majority have gone to left-leaning candidates and committees. They’ve both donated the maximum $5,000 per person allowance to Obama’s campaign this cycle, and Cheryl pitched in the maximum $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee in January.

Some of Silicon Valley’s super-rich have pitched in too. Marc Benioff, billionaire CEO of tech giant Salesforce.com, has been fighting for Obama since the second the president kicked off his 2012 re-election bid. In April 2011, he hosted a fundraising dinner at his San Francisco home. Guests paid up to $35,800 per plate, $5000 of which went directly to Obama’s campaign and the rest to the Democratic National Committee. To date, the web entrepreneur — worth $2 billion per Forbes’ most recent estimate – has raised over $500,000 from his network of friends, acquaintances and colleagues as a ‘bundler’. Benioff, his wife Lynne and his mother Joelle have each given the maximum two $2,500 donations to Obama’s campaign this cycle.

San Francisco hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer is no stranger to politics, as my colleague Kerry Dolan reported in September. He threw in a $5 million donation—the single largest sum donated— to fight Proposition 23, a 2010 California ballot that would have quashed a law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He drove around the state campaigning and worked the phones to get donations from the likes of Bill Gates ($700,000) and billionaire hedge fund manager Julian Robertson ($500,000). His efforts paid off: The proposition was soundly defeated. Now, he’s backing Obama’s re-election bid, and has raised between $50,000 and $100,000 towards the cause to date. Like his fellow billionaire ‘bundlers’, he’s given the maximum per person bid to the 2012 campaign: $5,000 in two gifts.

Outside the Golden State, a handful of liberal billionaires have been writing checks and raising funds for the President, although Romney counts on the support of far more of the Forbes 400. Alongside Benioff and Steyer, Hyatt billionaire Penny Pritzker, investor James Crown, and hedge funder Marc Lasry have also been ‘bundling’ for the President by soliciting donations from their wealthy networks. And perhaps the best known liberal billionaire of all, George Soros, made headlines on Monday when he announced $2 million in donations via a super PAC and a grassroots group instead of to the Obama campaign itself. Watch this space as other left-leaning super-rich are sure to follow suit.

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Clare, we have a project for you. Please write an extremely gushing article about all of the President’s awesome billionaire friends. If it starts sounding too elitist, drop in a throwaway line about how Romney knows billionaires too. Thanks.